The 1765 Stamp Act Crisis and Unrest In British North America Flashcards
what happens after the treaty of paris? describe how france was feeing and the situation for Britiain and the colonies as well
After 1783, after the treaty of paris, all of french territory is ceded to Britain
But they had a secret treaty with spain where they sell Louisinana to Spanish ally because they don’t want it to fall in British hands
And because of Britain’s victory in the seven years war (France’s strategy didn’t work out too well)
They did not win the major war in Europe that they thought they were going to win
So France is embarrassed
The French keep Guadeloupe
Seven years war caused debt for Britain
Colonies were also not doing well economically
describe how colonies start to develop their own consciousness
As they are growing in population and economic importance, the old relationship should shift and there should be a new relationship of the colonies as kind of partners in empire rather than to be exploited only for their resources
1763 Royal Proclamation Line
One of the things that creates a rift between Britain and the colonies is that there is a decision to take indigenous diplomacy out of the hands of colonists and put it directly in the hands of the British gov. to negotiate with First Nations on a government to government basis
Establishes this area as an Indian reserve
Not establishing a kind of hard western barrier
Not establishing a sovereign Indigenous nation
Area that was supposed to regulate the British Westen expansion
So any expansion into this area would be negotiated Britain directly and first nations people
Reforms of 1764: American revenue act, currency act and quartering act
In 1764, you have a number of these beginning of these reforms:
-American Revenue Act (Sugar Act) (bans sugar, rum, etc. from France)
Tries to boost imports from the British colonies
There’s a tax that’s levied on them that goes to the treasury
-Currency Act
Restrict the abilities of colonies to issue their own paper currency
This is very important because the colonies were perpetually short on cash and needed to issue their own paper currencies
-Quartering Act (1765)
up to the colonial governments to pay for food, housing, etc. of british troops who were quartered in the colonies
Passage of the Stamp Act 1765
First time that the British gov. Attempted to levy a direct tax on the colonies
Things like sales taxes were direct taxes
Any paper product had to be taxed
Heavily protested in the colonies (we have our own assemblies)
Marks another shift where the colonies and the metropole start seeing each other as political opponents to be defeated
policies impacting the 13 colonies brought them closer together
debate surrounding the stamp act
colonies were founded on an older (pre glorious revolution) conception of the british constitution
In 1688, parliament decides who holds the crown
That acts of parliament are part of the british constitution
Colonies are formed before that and they didn’t necessarily agree with this idea of parliamentary supremacy
Colonial Protests to the stamp act and 1766 repeal
Constitutional argument over Parliament’s ability to levy taxes on the colonies.
Opposed to the idea of direct taxes (viewed as the exclusive jurisdiction of the colonial assemblies)
Formation of organized protest groups: Sons of Liberty and Loyal Nine in Boston.
Civil disobedience and violence against customs officials, courts, and government buildings by lower classes.
Stamp Act Congress in New York, 1765 (meeting where delegates from these colonial assemblies discuss how to deal with this stamp act)
Both agree that they will petition both the king and the parliament for repeal
Growth of non-importation movement: They organized a big boycott across all 13 colonies of british goods (if they all stop buying british goods that will put enough political pressure on parliament to repeal)
Protests in the West Indies and Maritimes (Halifax, St. Johns, St. Kitts & Nevis), but far less unrest.
Opposition by British merchants and West Indian planters was key to turning the House of Commons against the Stamp Act (British merchants and west Indian planters wanted to drop it)
In 1766 the stamp act is repealed but there is also an act that’s passed along with the repeal called the declaratory act
Declaratory act: says that though we’re repealing this, we reserve the right to levy taxes on the colonies
The “Townshend Acts” 1767-68
Made in response to what happened with the stamp act
Revenue Act;
Custom duties on different exports
Colonies not fine with it, just doing it to raise revenue on them
Commissioners of Customs Act
Customs boards to enforce new taxes
In major colonial ports
Had influence and connections
New York Restraining Act
Vice-Admiralty Court Act
Strengthens vice-admiralty courts to enforce these laws
No juries
Judges were appointed by people with connections, etc.
Boston Massacre 1770
Hotbed of resistance to the laws
John Hancock (ship seized by vice-admiralty court in Boston)
In March, a group of protestors start berating group of British soldiers
Soldiers kill 5 men and wound 8 others
Trial for british soldiers and captain preston for murder in a boston court
Trial against Captain Preston and British soldiers in a Boston court (British wanted to talk about trying in the British Courts)
John Adams crown prosecutor
Same day of the Boston Massacre, Townshend Act is repealed (which quiets things down in the colonies)
The tea act of 1773 and the boston tea party
Famine in Bengal in India at the time
In part caused by them because they wanted people there to start growing more tea rather than food
So the British gov. Gives them a monopoly on tea sales (means that they could sell things for far higher prices than they could in a competitive market)
East India Company has a monopoly on tea so the only people who can sell the tea are those who are given licenses
Tea will be taxed as well
New radical groups show up in Boston and start blocking East India company ships from embarking their tea
Angered both merchants who could no longer sell tea and radical groups who saw it as a ruse to import more taxable tea.
Sons of liberty rush onto the ship and dump the tea into the harbour
The value of the tea would have been 2 million dollars
Colonies are increasingly viewed as rebellious
British push harder
Ideological Arguments
A constitutional monarchy was a new thing (emerged from the english civil wars)
The ways in which people in the colonies viewed the english civil wars and the outcome of the glorious revolution very much influenced how they thought about the current conflict between the colonies and great Britain
Belief that liberty is fragile and always has to defend against power (which tends towards corruption and tries to undermine liberty)
Rejected the idea of parliamentary sovereignty as being kind of just as potentially threatening to liberty as any kind of absolute monarch
Started viewing it that parliament was increasingly dominated by a faction of moneyed interests who were looking to exploit the colleagues for their own economic and political benefit (this feeds into the idea of a “Tyranny Conspiracy”)
Tyranny conspiracy: creation of vice-admiralty courts, trials without juries, new royally appointed officials, closing off of continuing settlements in the west, monopoly on tea, this is all part of a unified scheme to impose a tyranny on the colonies
Creeping Catholicism (anti-catholicism, antagonism toward the establishment of Anglican bishops within North America)
‘Oriental’ Decadence
Inter-elite conflict and loss of economic opportunities for lower classes
Thomas Paine: The populist pamphleteer
Publisher of Common Sense
Born in england and moves to americas in 1774 as the crisis is heating up
Combines older theory to more contemporary approaches (makes it accessible)
Pushing for full independence for the colonies
